In conversation, Purdham veers from the pragmatic to the preposterous.
He concedes that making money from digital music is "like climbing
Everest", before proposing that a whole new industry will soon be built
around 3D printing. "People talk about piracy
– they haven't even begun to scratch what piracy is going to be like in
the future," he says, perched on the rust-coloured sofa in his north
London office. "You design a glass jar or a sculpture, and anybody will
be able to print that in their own home. You will be able to print guns.
You can already print body parts on a 3D printer. All of these things
that Star Trek had are starting to come true."